Group Travel Features
Improving Group Travel Experiences.
Duration
4 weeks
My Role
UX Research, Strategy & Design
The User Problem
Group travelers planning a trip feel frustrated and sometimes overwhelmed not having access to some conveniences which are generally available at hotels and resorts, and with the process of managing details of a group trip when staying at a rental property.
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The Business Challenge
Airbnb conducted an online survey and found that roughly 4 out of 5 American travelers (79%) have been on multiple group trips in the last five years. The goal for Airbnb was to determine what feature they should build next in their effort to better support group travelers so they can build on the momentum of their Tilt app (split-fee) purchase, help Airbnb group travelers to seamlessly plan details before and during stay, attract group travelers to Airbnb away from competitors, attract private owners of larger properties to host with Airbnb, and Increase users, retention and revenue.
Research
I researched Competitive & Analogous Brands like VRBO, HomeAway, Bookings and Hotel apps to see what they were doing for group travel. In addition, analogous research of the Hotels and resort models were evaluated and data from Pew Research Center, Semrush, Similarweb, AppAnnie & Crunchbase was reviewed.
User Interviews were conducted to understand the Group Traveler and Private Property Owner users' needs, goals and pain points regarding their overall group travel related experiences. In addition, I interviewed a travel Personal Assistant to gain insight on what kind of amenities or services group travelers tended to request for their trip.
Formative evaluations conducted were a Heuristics Review of the current application to determine what was working and what was not working for group travel, a Survey to determine which specific amenities/services users are interested in, and a Card Sorting exercise to determine groupings of features identified in the survey..
Discovery & Insights
While conducting online research about group travel and Airbnb competitors, I found a comparison of the hotel and resort industries to Airbnb:
"While there is considerable contrast between the personas and preferences of Airbnb and hotel guests, it’s a gap that’s getting smaller by the day. There’s an opportunity for Airbnb to lure more traditional hotel guests by focusing on the trust factor, and hotels can compete by adding more localized and distinctive experiences.”–iModerate CEO Jen Drolet
User interviews revealed that the majority of group travelers preferred hotel or resort experiences because of the amenities and services available to them for convenience purposes. However, users would opt for the space of rental properties if they had access to the same or amenities and services beyond what hotel and resorts had to offer.
75% of those group travelers claimed that if they had the option for additional amenities or conveniences, they would more likely choose to stay in a rental property over a hotel or resort.
58% of group travelers prefer to stay in hotels or resorts when traveling with a group over staying in a rental property.
Other
The Design Process
The information I obtained from the competitive and analogous research, survey, group traveler & private property owner user interviews, and personal assistant interview helped form possible solutions for group travelers to be designed in a new feature in the app. To help focus the scope for group features mvp, I developed Personas for group travelers and another for private property owners. Then I built a Journey Map to guide features to be addressed.
"I would opt into extra conveniences to improve my stay."
"Sometimes it would be nice to have a little extra when traveling with my family."
Design Goal
Based on findings from my research, my design goal was for Airbnb to improve the group travel experience on their app by adding features like a communications/calendar and amenities/services that will monopolize on the opportunity to cater and benefit users that travel in groups and users that host for groups.
That goal would be beneficial for the user in addition to Airbnb for several reasons:
1. Improve group travel user experience by eliminating some of user pain points by helping group travelers have access to additional amenities & services as afforded to them by hotels and resorts, and seamlessly plan and keep track of some details before and during their stay at Airbnb properties.
2. More group travel user features will attract owners of larger properties to host with Airbnb.
3. Airbnb can build on momentum of Tilt app purchase for group travel user convenience.
4. Attract group travelers to Airbnb away from competitors.
5. Increase users, retention and revenue for Airbnb and private property owner rental listings.
Design Challenge
Although I would have liked to address adding the in app communications/calendar feature and amenities/services feature, due to time constraints, I decided to focus the scope for this mvp to focus on amenities/services and tackle the in application communications/calendar feature at a later point.
New Group Features Concept
The new group features would be added to the Amenities section within the airbnb app where group travelers would have access to amenities or services not listed by the property owner. The Amenities/Services Upgrades available to group travelers for an additional cost in the Amenities Upgrades screens would include "Basics" such as toiletries, groceries and adult drinks, "Towels & Bedding" options, etc. Users would also have the option for Special Requests if they require an amenity not listed in the upgrade, and have access to communicating with a Personal Assistant via phone conversation. The Services Upgrades screens would offer the user options like "Theme Setup" for birthdays, romantic getaways, etc. "Housekeeping," "Sitting Services" for children or pets, and "Spa Appointments." Group travelers would have the option to communicate with others in the group to select a property for booking, or shared upgrades via SMS or email, etc. They would also be able to split-pay or pay in full on their own for the selected upgrade services. Once the amenity/service is booked, the user would have the option to add it into the in app group or personal calendar.
Initial Design
The first steps taken was to build a user flow which evolved into a wireflow to map the user happy path through the added features within the existing Airbnb app.
Since an Amenities screen already exists within the property listings sections of the app, I added an Amenities & Service Upgrade Tab for the user to opt into additional amenities not offered to users in the amenities included with the property listings they were interested in.
Concept Prototype
A low-fidelity prototype of the new group feature of Amenities & Services Upgrade was built in Marvel Pop which. Users would create a group hub and invite other users traveling in the group to join so they can participate in joint decisions in the app. The user initiating the service/transaction would be able to confirm with others in the group the amenities and services about to be booked, via SMS, email, etc. from the app. At the checkout process, the user will have the option to choose a group split-pay, group fund-pay, or individual pay option. After payment is processed, the user will be able to add the amenities or services booked onto a group calendar in additional to a personal calendar.
Metrics for Success
Ease of Learning (quantitative) - successfully accomplish tasks
Accuracy (quantitative) - number of errors and violations of separate tasks
Efficiency (quantitative) - time-frame to successfully accomplish tasks
Ease of Learning (qualitative) - user’s rating of ease of use
Satisfaction (qualitative) - rating by user of overall experience
Initial Usability Testing and Key Findings
Contextual Usability Testing of the prototype was conducted to observe users and determine the viability/functionality of the user flow of the new group features, and interactions for optimal success. The testing included Airbnb and competitor users, i.e. VRBO, hotel and resort customers, to include learning for retention and new customer acquisition.
Although some of the participants initially had difficulty with the low fidelity aspect of the prototype, once they understood that it was at the beginning phase of the design, the overall key findings were that users were not interested in signing in to the new feature up front. Also, users who used competitor lodging, like VRBO, hotels and resorts said the new feature would definitely make them consider Airbnb for their next group travel stay.
Rounds of Higher Fidelity Prototypes and Usability Testing
Using the findings from the initial usability testing, I iterated on the design to improve usability.
In the next 2 rounds of clickable prototypes which were built in Adobe XD, I incorporated brand visual standards and and further developed the features at a more granular level to include iterations such as addressing Miller's Law of chunking information while scanning for a specific amenity or service on the new feature. I incorporated further chunking of the Amenities & Services Upgrade feature and included category icons to to improve usability and lessen cognitive overload while scanning the lists.
Results
After a total of 3 rounds of iteration and testing, the overall key findings revealed that the new Group Travel Feature was beneficial to users and the iterations improved overall usability of the new group feature prototype. For instance, it was beneficial to add icons to the sections of the Amenities & Services Upgrade feature. Quicker scanning was also observed while viewing the list options, which resulted in improved ease of use and learning and optimized results for all the metrics tested for.
UX toolkit
Milanote, Voice Recorder, Optimal Workshop, SurveyMonkey, Marvel PopAdobe XD, Illustrator, InDesign, Invision Marvel Pop, Keynote, Zoom